Never the End: The Next Generation
by Galaxy1001D
Summary: No man lives forever, but in Jean-Luc Picard's final moments, the Q makes him an offer he can't refuse.


_Star Trek and all related material are © Paramount Studios. This story has been written solely for entertainment. The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the opinions of Paramount Studios, the author, or this website._

**Never the End: The Next Generation**

By Galaxy1001D

It was a sad day in the 25th century. Despite advances in medical science it was a fact that man was still mortal. Every man had his time, and even though 25th century science ensured everyone more time than those who lived in previous centuries, the fact remained that no one lives forever.

This particular day marked the passing of a man whose impact on history was immeasurable. Jean-Luc Picard had lived longer than anyone in his family ever had, but his time was up. The doctors called it Shuster's Disease, but previous generations had placed his ailment into the catch-all category of old age.

Jean-Luc Picard was famous. He had commanded three starships in his long career in Starfleet, made first contact with over fifty new intelligent species and safeguarded the United Federation of Planets from every threat from unjust policies to Borg invasions. He had fought for inorganic rights and had been the Klingon Arbiter of Succession. He had contacted incredibly powerful omnipotent beings and enforced the Prime Directive of noninterference of primitive cultures. He was a legend. A legend who was now ending his life in the most pedestrian way, death by old age.

Jean-Luc Picard could look back at his life and smile at his achievements, but he could also look back and sigh over the opportunities he had missed. Romances that died stillborn, dying childless without a family, the prices that all great men seemed to pay in order to become great. And in the end he was just a man after all. A wise man who was wise enough to know how foolish he really was in the end, but in the end, aren't all men foolish?

As he passed this mortal coil he could hear music, but it wasn't a choir of angels. It sounded more like a big band number from a Dixon Hill holonovel, the kind of music his old first officer William Riker really went for. He heard someone singing, as if singing from Jean-Luc Picard's point of view.

"And now, the end is here, and so I face the final curtain," the voice sang gently. "My friend, I'll say it clear; I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and ev'ry highway, and more, much more than this, I did it my way."

Jean-Luc opened his eyes to see whiteness all around him. If was hard to see where the floor ended and the walls began, or if there were walls at all. It was as if he was in a white void, nothing but whiteness and light that was everywhere but for some reason didn't hurt his eyes.

"Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention," a man's voice sang. "I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption. I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway, and more, much more than this, I did it my way."

Jean-Luc looked around and finally found the source of the voice he was looking for. The white tuxedo the man was dressed in made it difficult to spot him. His white clothing against a white background made him appear to be a floating head and a pair of hands. His features were familiar to Jean-Luc though. There was no mistaking that mocking smile no matter how much white light saturated the area. "Q!" Jean-Luc shouted with the rich booming baritone voice he possessed in his youth. It was the voice of a captain, not the voice of a senior citizen.

But the being known as 'Q' wasn't listening. By now he had gotten to the chorus line and he was not going to be deterred, not even by the living dead. "Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew, but through it all, when there was doubt; I ate it up and spit it out! I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way!"

"Q! What is happening?" Jean-Luc demanded.

The being known as 'Q' seemed to see Jean-Luc for the first time. A cane and top hat appeared magically and the Q danced over to the confused Frenchman. "I've loved; I've laughed and cried. I've had my fill, my share of losing," he sang in mock tenderness. "And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing." The mocking expression on his face was nearly frightening. "To think I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way, 'Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way.'"

"Q! What are you singing for?"

"Why Jean-Luc, I'm singing about _you_," he said in condescending sweetness before belting out the last verse of the song. "For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught! To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels! The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!"

The musical accompaniment that followed was nearly deafening.

"Yes, it was my…. Way…!"

An invisible audience clapped in thunderous applause. The Q bowed, smiled and blew kisses.

Jean-Luc Picard rolled his eyes. "Tell me I'm not being punished for my sins," he muttered. He then noticed that he was in uniform, not the uniform Starfleet was using in the 25th century, but the uniform that was used during the 2360's, when he had first encountered the Q.

"Punished?" Q asked with a hurt but mocking look on his face. "Why would you think that? No! Exactly the opposite! I'm here to reward you, Jean-Luc! Reward you for a lifetime of service!"

"I thought you promised not to bother me anymore?"

"Bother you? I never promised to stop bothering you!" Q snickered. "I promised to let you be until the end of your days! And guess what? Your days are up."

Picard covered his face with his hands.

"Ah, there we go," Q sneered. "Moving straight to the 'double face-palm'. When covering your face with one hand just isn't enough to convey the mortification. Oh Jean-Luc, how I've missed you!"

"Q, what is this about?" Picard asked as he tried to hide his uneasiness. It was possible that now that he was dead the Q might feel justified doing _anything_ to him.

"Life," the Q put his hand over his heart and smiled, "and how you seem to be out of it. That's why you're here. That's what we need to talk about."

"You?" asked a doubtful Picard. "Need to talk to me? About life?"

"Yes Jean-Luc," the Q smiled evilly. "Specifically, your life. I know your existence was just as limited and predictable like others of your kind, but believe it or not, you actually surprised me. That's quite an accomplishment. I'm omnipotent and all-knowing. I'm not easy to surprise."

"I can imagine."

"Actually you can't but why quibble over the little things? Speaking of little things, let's talk about _you_. You gave so much, and had so much to give, but your time ran out and your mind and body failed you. I've noticed you know. Don't think I haven't noticed. Your kind is so limited, so temporary. You grow old so fast."

"And you're mocking me for growing old?"

"Of course I am! Why else did you think that my human shape seemed to be a little bit older each time we met? I've been mocking you." The Q ran his hand over the top of his head. "Incidentally, did you notice the hair loss? I put that in for you. I made sure that each time we met I was just a _little_ bit balder."

"Indeed?" Picard looked at the Q, really looked at him. He appeared just like he did when the captian first encountered him on the way to Farpoint Station all those decades ago.

"I've been aping humanity in general and you in particular but I digress," the Q said breezily. "You've been entertaining Jean-Luc, and I've kept my eye on you. You've been absolutely boring ever since you left your little Starfleet but before then you were interesting. I'd like to give you the chance to be interesting again."

"Interesting? How so?"

The Q drew a breath and held it for a moment. "I'd like you to reenlist in Starfleet. Get yourself reactivated."

"Q! That's impossible! I'm in no condition, mentally or physically to…" Picard stopped when he realized who he was talking to.

"Impossible?" the Q jeered. "Surely by now you've realized that nothing is impossible for _me_. I can give you some more time if you want it. For example, right now I've allowed you to appear exactly as you did the day we first met."

Picard looked at his own hands. Not the hands of a young man, but not the age ravaged hands they should be either. He suspected his face looked the way it looked when they first met as well. "That explains the old uniform." He looked back at the Q with a new sense of calm. What did he have to fear? The dead have nothing to lose. "What exactly is all this about?"

"Ah it's a funny story," the Q shrugged. "As an all-knowing omnipotent being time is no barrier to me. Past present and future, it's all the same to me, and I've seen humanity's future. The future of humanity is going to be very interesting but at the same time, dull."

"How can it be both dull and interesting?" Picard asked, surrendering to what promised to be a truly bizarre conversation.

"Well the events that occur will be extremely interesting, but the people at these events turn out to be extremely… dull," the Q admitted. "Approximately four decades from the day of your death, humanity will make a discovery that changes everything, well not everything. It will _seem_ like it changes everything from your limited human perspective, but it will certainly change a lot."

"Change things how?" Picard asked. "For the good or bad?"

The Q made a dismissive gesture. "Oh mostly for the good but…" Suddenly his manner became sinister. "…as you know nothing's free," he smiled evilly.

"And where do I come in?" Picard asked. "According to your timeline, I've been dead for forty years."

"I'd like you to be there," Q shrugged. "Nobody makes discovery entertaining like Jean-Luc Picard."

"Won't other explorers be able to make those discoveries?"

"Yes, but they lack…" Q made a big show of searching for the right word. "…that special panache if you catch my meaning. Let me put it this way. You've watched a lot of documentaries haven't you? Some of them you've experienced on your holodeck."

"Yes, I suppose…"

"The people in those simulations, the _protagonists_, they weren't exactly the most charismatic fellows in history were they?" Q asked him. "The simulations, the really accurate ones, the ones that weren't changed to make them more interesting, the historical figures didn't exactly do their noteworthy deeds with _elan_ did they? When they said those things that everybody remembers them for, they didn't say it the way actors and dramatic simulations of later generations did, did they?"

Picard's brow furrowed. "Q, are you saying that the reason you want to bring me back to life is because I look good on the holodeck?"

The Q smiled in wicked triumph. "You always were one of the brightest of your species. Yes that's correct. Of all the explorers in the decades to come none of them have the stage presence of Jean-Luc Picard. Let's face it Jean-Luc. With that voice, everything you say is absolutely delicious. And how can I miss a chance to see the look on your face when that incredible discovery is made? History has cast the wrong person for the role, that's all, but I can fix things. I'm going to give history the right leading man."

"Q!" gasped a horrified Picard. "Do you mean to tell me that you're going to restore my life at the expense of someone else?"

The Q exploded in laughter but resumed his compose quickly. "No!" he chuckled, "of course not. Not directly anyway. But who do you think Starfleet will send out there to investigate an event of such critical importance? The new guy who only has the benefit of one lifetime or the experienced hand with a proven record?"

"Is this what you have in store for me?" Picard whispered. "Forever rejuvenating me at the moment of my death so that I can continue to amuse you?"

"No, not if you stop amusing me," Q shrugged. "If you decide to choose the boring and pedestrian path of working in your vineyard, getting married and having a family you'll never hear from me again, and when you finally die it will be just as permanent as it is for the rest of your ephemeral species. But if you amuse me," he purred with cunning smile, "well, who knows how I'll feel next time? If there's nobody I can find with that Picard panache in the 26th century I might do it again. But no promises."

"Q! This is my life and every man must…"

"Jean-Luc, is your feeble intellect so limited that you're actually arguing in favor of your own demise?" the Q shook his head condescendingly. "Now shut up and let me save your life. Simply curing your Shuster's Disease won't do. You'll be in no shape to do anything exciting in forty years unless I completely rejuvenate your pitiful physical body and make it chronologically younger. Yes, I think a century or more off your age will do wonders for you Jean-Luc. All those wrinkles and bags were starting to depress me anyway."

"Q, what am…" The white light grew blinding and Picard found himself lying in bed in the hospice he had passed out in before his near death experience. "Q what am I supposed to…" he began in a youthful tenor before he stopped in surprise at his own voice.

"Jean-Luc?" asked his old shipmate, the android Data. "Is that you?"

"Data," Picard chirped. "I'm so glad you're here! Get me a mirror! What do I look like? How young am I? Do I look like Shinzon?"

"Nurse get my friend a mirror!" Data called over his shoulder. "He has undergone an incredible transformation and wishes to view the physical change!"

"Data, how long was I dead?" Picard whispered.

"Four minutes, forty-seven point two four seconds," Data replied. "Not long."

"Data how long have you been here?" Picard smiled. "I thought I was merely hallucinating when I heard your voice."

Data smiled sadly. "You weren't yourself Jean-Luc, but I felt I owed it to you."

"Looks like you're not the only one to come back from the dead, eh Mister Data?" Picard smiled with tears in his eyes. "I thank God you downloaded your memories into B-4 and that Geordi was able to modify your brother's positronic net until it matched yours exactly. You got to live again."

"It still required a hearing to prove my identity though," Data nodded. "It might be more difficult to prove that you are who you say you are even with…"

"Who's the boy?" the nurse blinked as she walked up behind the android and handed him a hand mirror. "What happened to Captain Picard?"

"Believe it or not, this _is_ Captain Picard," Data shook his head as he handed Picard the mirror.

"What the devil?" The face looking back at Picard wasn't that of Captain Picard, or Lieutenant Picard or even Midshipman Picard. The last time he had seen that face it was right after a transporter accident aboard the _Enterprise D_ that had temporarily transformed him, Guinan, Ro, and Molly O'Brien into twelve year olds. He ran his fingers through his hair before laughing hysterically. "Q! You idiot!"

Days later Picard and Data had a meeting with the head of Star Fleet Academy.

"Admiral Tuvok, I'm aware that this situation is strange but I assure you I'm telling the truth when I say I'm the real Jean-Luc Picard and not a clone."

"I observed his physical transformation and am willing to sign an affidavit to that effect," Data added.

"Yes," Picard nodded. "The entity known as the Q…"

"The Q?" the elderly Vulcan asked knowingly. "Have no fear Captain. Your experience is unusual but by no means unique."

"You can say that again," a little girl's voice said as a twelve year old girl entered Tuvok's office. "I thought _I_ was the only one."

"Katherine?" Picard whispered in disbelief. "Katherine Janeway?"

"That's right," the girl smiled. "Looks like he got you too, Jean Luc. Welcome to your second childhood."

NEVER THE END


End file.
